Imagine this scenario, and yes, it is a present-day one: the leader of a populous, nuke-possessing nation, the citizens of which are religiously and ideologically divided--rather sharply so, sometimes to the point of violence and terrorism--is someone who rose to power after a stint as the head of the country's espionage agency. He places his sons in positions of governorship over two of the country's wealthiest and most politically-valuable provinces while grooming one son to be the guaranteed successor to his own position at the nation's helm a decade later; and, when that comes about, stacks his staff from the top on down with cronies and war profiteers.
I know, someone really ought to drag those banana republics into the twenty-first century.
Oh, wait...
As news comes forth that assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari and their son Bilawal will co-chair the Pakistan People's Party, the Freepers and Green Footballers of the world are picking away at the splinter in Pakistan's eye--muttering about corruption and nepotism while remarking that Musharraf isn't perfect but hey, he seemed to be working--even as they ignore the telephone poles that are firmly lodged in their own red-white-and-blue-tinted corneas.
It strikes me as more than a bit hypocritical for anyone Stateside to be grousing about, well, corruption and nepotism abroad.
It matters not if a country is known for its bananas or its missiles: power-poisoned human beings, brown and white ones alike, will always revert to form. La plus ça change...
Also at Cogitamus.
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